Weekend cooking - pizza potatoes

This year, I'll be posting some of the things I cook and bake. Hope you enjoy it.

This one is something I found in a weigh-less cookbook. As with anything in the kitchen, you can make it healthy or not so healthy. Since one of my health goals is to get to my goal weight of 52 as fast as possible, I'm going for healthy.

Ingredients
180g potato
200g diced mushrooms, onions and tomatoes
salt, pepper to taste
30g low-fat cheese

First, zap the potato in the microwave until done (in my microwave, that's about 7 minutes).
Cut the potato in half and scoop out the potato.
Mash and mix with the mushrooms, onions and tomatoes. Add salt and pepper. Should look like this:

Then, scoop the mixture back into the potato halves. Of course, there's such a lot of mixture that it does all spill everywhere. That's fine.

Put back in the microwave for about 2 minutes.

Then sprinkle cheese on top and zap again for about 30 - 60 seconds.

Then it looks like this (there should be more cheese but I was hungry so I started on the cheese)

Voila - enjoy!

Weekend cooking - pizza pasta casserole

Ingredients
500g mince (I only had 280g so I added 220g lentils)
1 Onion, diced
Carrots (I buy Pick & Pay’s prepared julienned carrots and then roughly chop them)
Bottle bolognaise sauce (I used the low-fat Royco one at Pick & Pay – about R15)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt, garlic, pepper to taste
500g spaghetti (I didn’t have spaghetti so I used the twisty pasta)
Cheese


Method
Heat pot and then add oil and onion.
Add mince, spices and brown.
Add carrots and then bolognaise sauce.
Cook for about 10 minutes.


Add pasta and mix thoroughly.
Pour into a casserole dish.
Add cheese to the top and top with your favourite pizza toppings.

I use mushrooms because I don’t like mixing meats but you can top with salami, bacon, sausage, etc.

Serve with a side salad and some bread.

About the picture
I forgot to take a picture of the completed one before I started serving and I couldn’t blog an ugly one, now could I?

In the kitchen - Sandra's pizza

Making pizza is one of my favourite things to do - I think it's because it feels like chemistry. A little bit of this and a little bit of that :-)


I used to buy the ready-made pizza bases OR use wholewheat pita breads for a base until I discovered Sandra's pizza recipe.


This is so easy - it's the 3rd time I've made them. And I'm typing the ingredients by memory!


Ingredients
1 pkt yeast
2 1/4 cups flour
1 cup lukewarm water
1 tbsp honey (I don't have honey so I use sugar)
1 tbsp oil (I use extra virgin - anything will do) - I see Sandra uses 2 tbsp

1. Mix the dry ingredients and then add the liquids.
2. Cover with a cloth and leave in a warm spot to rise to double its volume (I put my bowl in the laundry, on top of the tumble drier while it's drying the laundry).
3. Roll out on a floured surface
4. Add some pasta sauce (I use All Joy- 99% fat-free :-)) and lots of garlic and smear
5. Add your choice of toppings

6. Bake at about 220 degrees for about 15 minutes

7. Enjoy







This weekend I made focaccia too.


I brushed the dough with extra virgin olive oil, smeared with garlic and added some coarse salt. And it tastes delicious! I might just put Mimmo's out of business :)